When I woke up the next morning, I was curled up on my sofa with a nice blanket thrown over me. Stacy and Jenna were huddled in the kitchen, casting wary glances at me while whispering.

“I don’t think we should wake her up yet,” Jenna said quietly, even though I could still fully hear her.

“No, it’s almost 2 in the afternoon. She needs to get up. Now,” Stacy protested at the same volume as Jenna.

Obviously, they were both trying to be very quiet because their voices were like hushed whispers but the only problem was that they weren’t very quiet.

“Stacy…”

“Jenna, I’m missing an entire day of work just to watch her sleep. I don’t want to do that anymore.”

Jenna sighed and they both turned around to face me so quickly that I barely had time to shut my eyes again.

“Fine,” she said. “But you go wake her up.”

I mentally pictured Stacy making a face of disgust at Jenna. “No! You let her sleep, you do it.”

“No way! You’re the one who wanted to wake her up.”

“Yeah, well…still. You go!”

“No, you.”

“You.”

“You.”

“You.”

With a sigh of annoyance, I jumped out of the comfortable position I was in on the sofa and walked over to the both of them.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’ll get up myself.”

“Are you going back to work today?” Stacey asked me.

“Yeah,” I replied, taking a bite out of an apple. “Why wouldn’t I?”

Stacey and Jenna exchanged glances.

“No reason,” she said.

I gave her a weird look and then headed towards the bathroom. It’s a big day. Other than the fact that I have to face Jake after all that, I would have to face everyone else at the office. Awkward much?

When I got to work, I quickly jumped out of the car and ran for the door. I knew Stacey and Jenna would be trying to make sure that I was okay—A.K.A swarming me like a bunch of bees.

Bill gave me a nice smile and I returned it. I could always count on Bill to be a nice person.

The long line up for the elevator seemed to stretch forever, and honestly, I’m not dealing with any more judgement from anyone. So, I decided to walk. Except, after the first ten flights of stairs, I realized that taking the stairs was not such a good idea because I felt like I was about to have a heart attack. And there were over 20 more flights to go.

I opened the door to my floor and started panting and heaving immediately. My legs felt like they were going to fall off and all I wanted to do at this point was to go back down the stairs, get in my car, drive home and sleep. Of course, that wasn’t very likely. After a full five minutes and calming exercises, I straightened up and headed to my desk. Everyone pretended to be minding their own business but I saw them stealing peeks at me from the corner of their eye. Even Tyler didn’t bother to saw hi, thankfully. I appreciated their effort, but somewhere deep down, I kind of wished that someone would ask how I was doing so I could just have an epic breakdown and Jake would feel like utter cr-p.

I took about 5 steps before I slammed into something and falling to the floor.

“Oh, I’m so – oh. Jessica. Hi.”

The voice is tired and guilty, and when I looked up, it was Scarlet.

“Hi Scarlet,” I gasped, winded from the fall.

“What – what are you doing here?” she asked, surprised.

“I work here…”

She laughed nervously and glanced around. “Well, I really gotta run. It was nice talking to you!”

Stacy ran up suddenly and grabbed Scarlet by the wrist. “You’re not going anywhere. Tell her what you did.”

“What’re you talking about? I didn’t do anything?” Scarlet said.

I looked at both of them. “Do what? What happened?”

Stacy ignored me and glared at Scarlet. “If you don’t tell her, I will. And you know that if I say it, it’ll make you look a thousand times worse than you already do.”

“What’s going on?” I asked confusedly.

“Well,” Stacy said slowly, “if you really must know….”

Scarlet sighed. “Fine! I’ll tell her, I’ll tell her.”

I turn to look at her. “Tell me what?”

“Okay, Jessica. Remember how I told you that Jake lied to me about getting back together?”

“Yeah….why?”

“Well…”

“What, did he do something even worse?”

“Not exactly,” Scarlet said quietly, taking a step back.

Squinting my eyes, I surveyed her. Shrinking away, low cast eyes, failing to meet my glance…she did something. Something bad.

“Okay, so what’s up then?” I asked her carefully. You don’t want to scare someone away before they can give you the information.

“The thing is,” Scarlet laughed nervously, “the entire thing about him lying to me was a lie.”

“A lie?”

“A lie. I knew all along that he wanted to use me to make you jealous. Hell, I even agreed to it in the beginning.”

I blinked several times before responding. “Wait, what?”

“I’m sorry, Jessica! Jake never used me…”

As she turned to leave, Stacy glared at her and Scarlet quickly turned around.

“Oh, and I was the one who made you fall. Bye!”

Scarlet pushed past Stacy and ran into the elevator, clicking what I assumed as the “close doors” button very quickly.

Stacy watched her leave and glanced at me quickly. “That girl is all talk and no walk…”

But I didn’t hear her. All I could think about was how much I messed up. All I could think about was how damn much I messed up.

How could I have been so stupid? How could I have honestly believed Scarlet and not Jake? I mean, he was my best friend. In a way, he still is my best friend and I totally messed that up. But, it’s not too late, is it? Because he would forgive me. He has to forgive me. That’s how it goes. It may take time, but he will. I know he will.

Somewhere far away, I heard Stacy calling me, asking where I’m going, but I don’t acknowledge her. I just kept walking towards Jake’s office, past my cubicle and right to the front of the door.

Just as I was about to knock on the door, I noticed something different. Something was off. I looked carefully at then door then realized that his sign wasn’t there. It went back to the same off-brown colour that separated it from the rest of the door.

I opened the door slightly and poked my head in. “Jake?”

The office was empty. As empty as could be. There was no jacket laying on the couch, no bulky pencil holder on the table, no stack of unread books that he promised that he’d read but haven’t gotten around to yet. Nothing.

“Jessica?” Stacy whispered from behind me.

She handed me a slip of paper when I turned around. My name was written messy across the front and I recognized it immediately as Jake’s handwriting. My hands trembled.

I’m sorry.

That was all it said.

I’m sorry.

Stacy looked at me sadly with another piece of paper in her hand. This one looked bulkier, and held in an envelope.

“What’s that?” I asked her, holding out my hand to take it. She looked reluctant to give it to me.

“Stacy, what is that?” I asked again in a more demanding tone.

She dropped the envelope into my hand slowly. “It’s a letter of resignation.”

“I’m sorry, a what?”

“A letter of resignation…”

“What does that even mean?” I said in a shallow voice. Obviously I knew what it meant, but …

“He’s gone, Jessica. I’m sorry.”

I stared at the note in my hand. “Yeah, I’m sorry too.”

-------------------------------

MY APOLOGIES FOR THE LATE UPDATE! but i wanted to make sure that i wanted to do it and that i was writing from the heart. or whatever haha.

but yeah, i am EXTREMELY SORRY.

VERY SORRY.

hopefully, you guys still stick to this story. or not. but this is the second last chapter, so brace yourselves for the ending :D

anyways, PLEASE VOTE/COMMENT (even though i might not deserve it after the month long absense haha).

yeah. pretty please :)